Arts Instruction of Public School Students in the First and Third Grades

This Issue Brief uses the First- and Third-Grade Spring Teacher Questionnaires of the ECLS-K to examine the changes over time from first to third grade in how often young children are exposed to arts education in the general classroom. The Brief also looks at differences in these characteristics by level of poverty and/or urbanicity of the school. In both first and third grade, most public school students received weekly instruction in music and art at least weekly, while weekly instruction in dance and theater occurred less often within each year. About 32 percent of students in high poverty public schools never received theater instruction in either grade compared with 24 percent of students in low poverty public schools. Of the students who received music instruction in either first or third grade, 29 percent of students in urban public schools received weekly music instruction less often in third grade than in first compared with 20 percent of students in suburban public schools and 22 percent in rural public schools.

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